After seven years of attempts to construct the innovative Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA) in Beirut, the project has finally made a breakthrough over the weekend, laying the foundation stone for one of its kind modern and contemporary art in the Lebanese capital.
The construction of BeMa was launched during a press conference organized by the NGO BeMA and Saint Joseph University (USJ) at the site of the proposed space, with Prime Minister Najib Mikati placing the foundation stone.
The project is expected to require four years of work (until 2026) and BeMA’s Board of Directors intends to finance the project with private funds.
The Museum is planned as an interactive public space with art galleries, halls, a library, and archives, showcasing artworks of regional and international artists collected by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture.
It will be also a space for creativity and artistic works, providing artists with affordable co-workspaces and studios.
BeMa is a non-profit and non-governmental association, founded by two Lebanese women, Rita Nammour and Sandra Abu Nader, restoring arts and aiming to build a museum of modern and contemporary art for Beirut to become, once again, a cultural and educational center.
The museum will be designed by architect Amale Andraos, the co-founder of WORK Architecture Company and Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.
BeMa was set to be initiated in 2015 as Beirut’s first museum of contemporary and modern art, but the project kept being stopped, including after the Beirut port explosion in 2020.
It finally broke through this weekend, setting the stone for a new era of modern art in Beirut and paving the way for a new historic journey for the Lebanese arts and cultural sector.
